I want nothing more than to see the Volvo/Acura/Jeep/Porche/Nissan dealerships along front street to be demolished and turned into residential. With the Ontario Line stop being proposed nearby (Front/Berkeley or King/Berkeley), its only a matter of time. But this stretch of properties prevents the WDL from being connected to the rest of the city. As East Harbour and The Portlands get developed, it will be important for this area of the city to be built up and continuous.
The sooner projects come for these properties, the better in my opinion.
not to derail the thread into talks of car dealerships, but the status of those dealerships are all a little fluid.
- Volvo is about to build a flagship dealership at 300 Bayview (not too far away, corner of River and Queen E)
- Acura and Honda just moved into their location on Front a couple of years ago, which was purpose-built as a car service facility. doubt they are going anywhere anytime soon
- Jeep and Dodge will be moving into the car mall across the DVP within the next year, as far as i know
- Nissan/Infiniti will eventually be replaced by the First Parliament project or Metrolinx project? That still might be quite a bit down the pipeline
- Porsche owns the building at Front and Parliament. They purchased a few years ago and invested quite a bit of infrastructure into making it a DT flagship. The intensification of the area in the coming years may actually encourage them to hang around as a 'luxury auto sales in the trendy DT'
All this to say, car sales seem to like this area. They may be moving around, but if so not far away. Being at the intersection of Gardiner and the DVP, close to DT, bodes well for flagship downtown dealers, it would seem.